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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28321263">Last Train to Tokyo</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsalliaArchive/pseuds/AsalliaArchive'>AsalliaArchive</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Love Live! Sunshine!!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst with a Happy Ending, Arranged Marriage, Bodyswap, Christmas, Developing Relationship, F/F, Forced Marriage, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Canon, Secret Santa, longing is a lesbian activity, mentions of abuse</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 16:56:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>6,615</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28321263</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsalliaArchive/pseuds/AsalliaArchive</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>“My anxiety doesn’t exactly stem from waking up in your body,” Dia admitted. “Which leads me to something I should apologize to you for ahead of time.”</em>
</p><p> </p><p>  <em>“What for?”</em></p><p> </p><p>  <em>“I have a meeting this afternoon,” Dia explained rather hesitantly. “For a marriage proposal.”</em></p><p> </p><p>  <em>Yohane blinked once, then twice. A sharp intake of breath followed not long after.</em></p><p> </p><p>  <em>“A WHAT?”</em></p><p> </p><p>Yohane finds herself in over her head when she wakes up in Dia's body on the worst possible day.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kurosawa Dia/Tsushima Yohane</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>32</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Last Train to Tokyo</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/scarlettholly/gifts">scarlettholly</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>MERRY CHRISTMAS HOLLY thanks for being my friend you're wonderful c:</p><p>I wanted to step outside my comfort zone for this, so I tried to combine a lot of things I knew you'd like into one little plot bundle. Hopefully it worked alright!</p><p>Anyways, hope everybody else enjoys reading my little secret santa present as well. YohaDia good :)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Yohane took certain things for granted whenever she went to bed.</p><p>And who could blame her, really? Waking comes with it certain expectations - the same sheets you passed out under, the same ceiling looking down on you. Those things fade into the background when you look at them every day for years on end, but in doing so they become a strangely passive kind of comfort.</p><p>A crutch, even.</p><p>It was some nondescript day in the middle of April, the kind of month where little of note happens, when Yohane woke up to a ceiling that looked entirely unlike her own. It wasn’t the mottled, palid white of her bedroom but a vibrant wood that looked as though it had been salvaged from god knows where. At first the difference didn’t quite register, seeming more like a dream than anything else. One, two, three blinks did little to convince herself of that fact, though, and slowly she mulled her options.</p><p>That should’ve been the moment where she freaked out. It only made sense to, and yet… well, she’d always been bad at taking issue with things. Given her luck, having sleepwalked into someone else’s house was really just par for the course. Not that it mattered much either way - it usually took a solid hour for her to even dream of getting up if something wasn’t going on, her body usually much more content nestled under the covers drinking in the harsh glare of a phone screen until the sound of her mom yelling at her finally roused her. Depression was a hell of a drug.</p><p>So with a shrug - or as much of one as she could offer herself while lying down - Yohane turned to her phone on the… nightstand that didn’t exist because she was trespassing in someone’s bedroom.</p><p>Right.</p><p>With a groan, Yohane pried the covers off her body and raised herself to a sitting position, finally forcing herself to scan the room she’d stumbled into. Unfortunately, though, there wasn’t really much to glean from its contents - the room was sparse and meticulously tidied, not a single imperfection to hint at some semblance of a personality. There <em>was</em>, however, a phone on the table near the door. Yohane willed herself up and walked over, palming the small device and hitting the power button.</p><p>Nothing, still. She was met with little more than a generic iPhone wallpaper guarded by a fingerprint reader, and she didn’t have the fingerprint for it.</p><p>What did that leave?</p><p>Yohane heaved a begrudging sigh as she went to throw on any old clothes she might be able to find - being in the buff wouldn’t be much of an introduction to whoever lived here, and the window stopped seeming like a realistic escape plan when she realized there were rose bushes right underneath the sill. Instead she lurched toward the closet, still in a haze. Blouses, skirts, dresses… outfits as benign as these were hardly fit for a fallen angel, but something in here would do. She grabbed something unassuming and moved to the bathroom, just to take stock of herself before meeting her fate.</p><p>What she saw would have elicited a shriek had she not thought to cover her mouth instinctually.</p><p>There, standing before her in the mirror, was Dia.</p><p>
  <em>Dia Kurosawa.</em>
</p><p>Suddenly, the depression-induced malaise that had muffled all her anxiety about the situation she’d found herself in seemed to evaporate. In its stead came sharp intakes of breath and a numbness that spread throughout her body in the form of pure, unadulterated adrenaline.</p><p>Okay, she rationalized. She was Dia. This made sense.</p><p>Somehow.</p><p>The clothes found themselves on the floor not long after, too much of a stomach-churning sight for Yohane (Dia?) to bear.</p><p>“Perhaps this is god’s way of spiting me,” Yohane spat under her breath to no one in particular. She traced a circle around the corners of the bedroom, examining the body that she’d hardly taken any note of prior. Similar shape to hers, lithe and slim. They’d always been the scrawny ones. Good skin, moles here and there. And…</p><p>Oh god, what was she doing? She couldn’t look at Dia’s body like this, it was despicable. Fallen angles didn’t violate the privacy of others, or at least Yohane assumed as such. There were better outlets for her energy - starting with that phone.</p><p>Yohane raced back over to the table, grabbing the phone and unlocking it. She navigated to the phone app and hastily swiped through Dia’s contacts, all the way down to the Y section.</p><p>Yoshiko, Yoshiko… Weird, she thought to herself. She wasn’t in Dia’s contacts? The thought panged her ever so slightly. They’d never been close, but Yohane had thought they’d always shared an affection for one another, if one that was rarely spoken. Still, there was no time for qualms right now. She dialed her own number by memory, praying that she’d be met with her own voice at the other end of the line.</p><p>“You too, then?”</p><p>And just like the movies promised her, Yohane heard the most heavenly words to have ever graced her ears. Even if she wasn’t thrilled by the voice that carried them.</p><p>“Dia!?” It sounded rather lame of her to simply shout Dia’s name, but it was the only action she could think of, just to confirm who she was even talking to.</p><p>“Well, I’d like to think so,” her own voice replied. “At the moment, though, I’m not entirely sure how to answer that accurately.”</p><p>“Are you not freaked out about this?” Yohane shot back in turn. “I mean, we… we…”</p><p>“We did, yes.” Dia-as-Yohane seemed almost tranquil, which in turn flared Yohane-as-Dia’s anxieties even further. “I should apologize for my reaction, I’ve been up quite a while. Your mother was… rather eager that you do the dishes at six in the morning.”</p><p>Though her voice carried itself steadily, Yohane knew its contours well enough to detect some small perturbance in it that she was quick to empathize with. She shuddered involuntarily, gooseflesh prickling up at the mere mention of her own mom.</p><p>“Shit, I’m sorry.” She sighed, and the silence that resulted was yawning. “I guess you already had time to freak out, then.”</p><p>“Yes, and then some. Does she normally act this way?”</p><p>“You shouldn’t have to deal with that,” Yohane replied in lieu of a straight reply. The meaning was clear enough. “Just keep your head down and don’t talk back and she’ll leave you alone. Mostly.”</p><p>“<em>You</em> shouldn’t have to deal with it either,” Dia replied in a tone firm enough that Yohane found herself reflexively flinching. Still, Dia couldn’t see that. “Should I be concerned?”</p><p>“No,” Yohane replied. Yes, she wanted to say, but that was beyond question. She assumed her lower register, or at least as much of one as she could muster with Dia’s vocal chords. “No, don’t worry. Fallen angels don’t pay much heed to their mortal roommates, but an earthly being such as yourself is quite a different story.”</p><p>Over the line, she heard a faint… giggle? She wasn’t sure she’d heard Dia giggle before, and hearing the sound coming from her own lips made it all the stranger.</p><p>“Well, I must admit it hasn’t helped calm my nerves. But…”</p><p>“But?” Yohane asked pointedly.</p><p>“My anxiety doesn’t exactly stem from waking up in your body,” Dia admitted. “Which leads me to something I should apologize to you for ahead of time.”</p><p>And there they came, crashing back into the inconvenient reality they were faced with. They had to keep each other’s lives on track, at least for the time. That would be easy for Dia - between Yohane’s lack of motivation and the helpless state of living with her mother, there was little to mess up. Dia, on the other hand, had drive. Yohane massaged the bridge of her nose with two fingers, already feeling a headache coming on.</p><p>“What for?”</p><p>“I have a meeting this afternoon,” Dia explained rather hesitantly. “For a marriage proposal.”</p><p>Yohane blinked once, then twice. A sharp intake of breath followed not long after.</p><p>“A <em>WHAT?</em>”</p><p>“I know it sounds like a lot,” Dia hastily clarified. “I get it, really. I hate to put this on your shoulders, but…”</p><p>“You don’t have a choice?” Yohane asked. The silence that resulted spoke volumes, and then some.</p><p>“All I need you to do is sit there and nod whenever someone speaks to you. You’ll have to remember what the terms are, but that’s it.” A long pause carried forth from the moment the last word left her lips, until at last in rang through the tinny phone speaker. “Oh,” she added almost offhandedly, “and please let me know what he looks like.”</p><p>“You… don’t know what he looks like?” No longer could Yohane will herself to be shocked. Instead came a voice of saddened empathy. “Not even a photo?”</p><p>“I was offered one, but…” Dia’s voice trailed off, leaving the connection hanging. “I couldn’t look at it. Every time I tried, I got noxious.” Another pause, a nervous cough. A voice carrying false steadiness where pained vulnerability had once been. “I’m sorry, you shouldn’t have to hear all that. Could you be there for me?”</p><p>“I… could try. As long as it’s for one of my little demons.” The reassurance carried with it little conviction, and she supposed that Dia probably picked up on it. Still, it was at least taken at face value.</p><p>“Thank you. It means a lot,” Dia replied. “Make sure to wear something nice. Not too much makeup, no perfume or jewelry. No need to appear flashy. The address and time are in my phone. Is there anything you need from me today?”</p><p>The question took Yohane off-guard, as though she’d forgotten what it was like to be asked for what she needed. And, of course, she had.</p><p>“My plans for today included lying in bed and getting ready for a stream before losing my motivation and watching videos instead. Safe to say, you can take it as a chance to relax. Maybe go outside if you don’t want to be yelled at,” she added in a bitter, acrid tone of voice.</p><p>“Understood,” Dia said in response. It was neutral, masking whatever emotions she may or may not have felt at hearing of Yohane’s plight. Sympathy, relief? Pity?</p><p>It didn’t matter much, Yohane supposed. It had been a while since they talked, Dia probably wasn’t concerned with her depression or her pathetic state of being anyways.</p><p>“Can… can I ask something?” Yohane willed herself to say. Dia hummed.</p><p>“Of course, what is it?”</p><p>“Why don’t you have me in your contacts?”</p><p>There was a brief lull before Dia responded, voice carrying no shortage of bemusement.</p><p>“I don’t understand what you mean. You <em>are </em>in my contacts.”</p><p>“But I checked and I didn’t see a Yoshiko-”</p><p>“Of course you didn’t,” Dia interrupted her. She sounded exasperated, as though this should <em>really</em> be basic information. “It’s under Yohane. Now please, start getting ready. You don’t have all day.”</p><p>Before Yohane could even open her mouth to reply, the line went dead. A harsh, constant ring carried over the line, signalling the conversation’s end. Yohane set the phone down with a heavy sigh.</p><p>Yohane, huh?</p><p>Maybe Dia did care after all.</p><p>~=O=~</p><p>Before getting ready, Yohane at least needed to satisfy some semblance of her curiosity. She’d never been to Dia’s apartment since they’d gone their separate ways, Dia to Tokyo and Yohane stuck in Numazu. All Yohane really knew was that Dia had an apartment here with Riko, though what form their relationship took was beyond her. Still, she couldn’t resist learning a bit more - she shrugged on a robe and tied it around her waist, luxuriating in its softness for a brief moment before sliding into some slippers and opening the door, stepping out into the hallway and making her way down to the kitchen.</p><p>“Morning, Dia!” came a cheery voice from the kitchen, and Yohane instinctively gravitated towards it. There in the kitchen, doting on a fry pan with several eggs in it, was Riko. Yohane had seen her more recently, but she’d still grown up a bit in the time since, even if it was in small ways. She carried herself more confidently now, seemed more at peace. The thought filled Yohane with no small amount of pride.</p><p>“Morning,” Yohane responded. It was timid, just testing the waters of the role she was supposed to be inhabiting. She wasn’t about to explain the particulars of an unbelievable scenario, least of all to her friend most prone to skepticism.</p><p>At least, not given what the rest of her day had in store.</p><p>“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you sleep in this late,” Riko noted with mirth in her voice. She passed Yohane a cup of coffee, pitch black with a thin trail of steam escaping its surface. “You must have really needed it, you seemed upset last night.”</p><p>Yohane stared at the coffee, bile creeping up her throat at the very thought of taking a sip. She sat it down on the table, hoping Riko wouldn’t notice.</p><p>“Was I? I, uh… didn’t notice.”</p><p>Riko hummed. It was a lame excuse, and they both knew it.</p><p>“Don’t think I haven’t notice that you’ve been hiding your plans lately. I’m just worried for you, Dia. That’s all. You don’t have to bear burdens on your own.”</p><p>Unbeknownst to Riko, Yohane agreed emphatically The thought of Dia torturing herself by dwelling on the fate she’d been saddled with panged at Yohane’s heart. And was she really not telling even Riko?</p><p>Oh, Dia.</p><p>“Oh, it’s nothing,” Yohane eventually managed to force out in response. “Just, uh… more of the usual, I suppose.”</p><p>She was really taking a gamble by saying that, but Yohane had never been one for improv.</p><p>“Then why don’t you just call her?”</p><p>Yohane’s blood ran cold. Oh god, what had she stepped in?</p><p>“I don’t know what you mean,” she responded as casual as could be. Riko set the eggs down on the table with some toast, and Yohane dug in eagerly.</p><p>“Uh huh,” Riko said. She joined Dia at the table, digging in. “Just like how you’re only busy today because you need to study?”</p><p>Yohane cringed, half a piece of toast in her mouth. Clearly, this was a sore subject.</p><p>“Sorry, I didn’t mean anything by it.” She talked through her food, and the action earned a strange look from Riko - enough to remind her who she was supposed to be.</p><p>“It’s okay, I know it’s touchy for you. I just think that she’d love to hear from you, and I’ve been having half a mind to invite her here myself. Christmas is coming up soon, you know.”</p><p>Truthfully, Yohane had always held Dia in an esteem that she didn’t hold many others in - call it infatuation or admiration, whatever it may have been. Dia offered Yohane a certain form of kindness that few others understood she needed, even through her terse, cold exterior. All Yohane could do was return the favor in her own way - she owed Dia that much and so much more, even after all the months and years that stretched out between the days of their friendship and now like a yawning chasm, pitch black and bottomless.</p><p>“Maybe that’s a good idea,” she responded timidly. Whoever this paramour was, Dia deserved their company. Yohane did her best to ignore the lump that formed in her throat at the thought.</p><p>Riko stared, shock etched into the corners of her eyes.</p><p>“Seriously?”</p><p>Yohane nodded, this time emphatically.</p><p>“Tis the season, right?”</p><p>A warm smile crossed Riko’s face as she untensed.</p><p>“I’m really happy to hear that, Dia.” She paused, placed a hand on Yohane’s. “I can tell you’re lonely, even if you don’t like to admit it. You don’t have to tell me what’s going on, but you can at least let me do what I can to make it better.”</p><p>Yohane stared Riko in the eyes, oceans of golden amber meeting her gaze in turn. They were warm, but also carried with them so much sadness. It wasn’t like Dia to let others recognize her pain - clearly, this meeting had been weighing heavier than Yohane could ever imagine.</p><p>The rest of breakfast progressed lazily, idle conversation giving Yohane a chance to practice the newfound role she was playing. She fought every instinct to slouch, wracked her brain for every polite mannerism she remembered Dia performing back in high school.</p><p>Eventually, however, Yohane remembered to check a clock.</p><p>Fuck.</p><p>Hastily, she wolfed down the last of her eggs and rushed away with only a hurried apology to offer Riko. Once she made it to Dia’s bedroom, she shut the door and flung open the closet, picking through every possible outfit that matched Dia’s request.</p><p>Formal, but not flashy. Right.</p><p>Eventually she settled on a modest sleeved dress, the kind of thing that she’d expect a family as stuffy as Dia’s to force her into wearing. It was far enough from Yohane’s own personal style that she might as well have gagged at the very sight, but… well, she was doing this for Dia.</p><p>She tugged it on, then moved to the mirror to take her current form in. Dia’s hair fell naturally to its rightful position, bangs draped across Dia’s forehead like a frame for a timeless portrait. Her lips were thin, yet looked beautiful curled up into one of those clandestine little smiles that Yohane could only do a pale imitation of. Yohane brought a finger to Dia’s beauty mark, poking at it idly and then tracing a gentle line down her neck and to her collarbone, where skin met fabric. Something about the act made her heat up, though, and she hastily retracted her hand. It grabbed hold of the fabric, balling it tightly in a fist.</p><p>She was going to keep it together, for Dia. She could make this work.</p><p>~=O=~</p><p>The meeting took place at the Kurosawa family home, which meant that Yohane had to take a train down to Uchiura not long after she’d managed to throw together something resembling an acceptable appearance. The journey was long, and she felt gazes turn upon her as the others in the train car took note of her formal attire. She shrank under the attention, doing her best to distract herself by exploring Dia’s music library. It was a window into her soul that Yohane had never gotten a chance to peek through before, and she was surprised with what she saw - a lot of English language indie music, certainly a far cry from the idol songs and koto music that conjured Dia’s image to mind. Perhaps Kanan and Mari had finally managed to rub off onto her a bit?</p><p>At the very least, it made for a good soundtrack as more and more familiar sights began to meet her eyes. They were entering Numazu now, likely not far from Dia.</p><p>As Yohane began to fret idly over how Dia was handling being thrust into her life, she heard a new song that bounced along in her headphones, lovelorn yet full of life. She turned to the phone, searching for the title. <em>Lover’s Game, </em>huh? She smiled. Even Dia had a flair for melodrama, it seemed. The highrises and concrete skyline receded from view outside the window, taking shelter beneath the horizon as the train hugged the coastline, snaking south to Yohane’s final destination.</p><p>Uchiura, just as beautiful as always. The sun was setting early, looking almost like a halo as it sank behind Mount Fuji and bathed the small town in warm, nostalgic gold. How long had it been since Yohane had come back here, even though she lived only a short distance away? The thought saddened her, but she had no time to dwell - the train had arrived at the station, and she had to make her way off to meet the driver that was waiting for her. They made their way to the family home in uncanny silence, though whether or not the driver was aware of the fate he was ferrying his passenger towards was unclear.</p><p>They pulled up at the house soon enough, and Yohane stepped out into the crisp winter air. Gooseflesh pricked at her arms and a chill bit at the nape of her neck, as though the winter itself were pleading with her not to take another step forward. She didn’t have time to listen - before she could blink, her feet had carried her all the way to the front door. She knocked once, then twice, then three times before it finally swung open.</p><p>Standing on the other side with an uncomfortable-looking dress and a frown across her face was Ruby Kurosawa.</p><p>“Onee-chan,” she whispered lamely as she took Yohane’s hand and walked inside with her. Judging from the atmosphere of the foyer, it seemed as though Yohane was leading Dia right into her own funeral rather than a marriage.</p><p>Though in some respects, Yohane supposed that it wasn’t so far from a funeral after all. The grandfather clock chimed from some far off room, sounding far too much like a dirge than Yohane was comfortable admitting to herself.</p><p>“I saw him earlier,” Ruby said after a brief silence spent navigating the dizzyingly large mansion the family occupied. “He looked… nice.” It sounded less like a reassurance than a rationalization, and they both knew it.</p><p>“I’ll have to believe you,” Yohane replied. She was genuinely and truly lost for words, somehow less sure how to navigate the situation Dia had thrust her into than how to even talk to someone who was supposed to be her younger sister.</p><p>“You don’t have to humor mom and dad,” Ruby said, even quieter now than before. “It really seems like they’re serious this time. I’ve been trying to convince them to let all this go, but they’re getting impatient.”</p><p>The sound of Ruby’s resignation broke Yohane’s heart, enough that she put on her best Dia impression and patted Ruby’s hair gently. The action earned a warm laugh from Ruby, who leaned into the touch with pleasure.</p><p>“Thank you, Ruby. It’ll all be okay, I promise.”</p><p>In truth, Yohane was even less sure of that than Dia would have been had she been there to say it.</p><p>What was she leading Dia into?”</p><p>~=O=~</p><p>“And the dowry?”</p><p>“We’ve prepared a stock portfolio of a few of our companies, along with an upfront fee. I think this should suffice.”</p><p>Without so much as giving Yohane even the slightest glance, the man in the tailor-cut suit passed Dia’s father a manila envelope containing a dizzying amount of paper records inside, undoubtedly full of numbers big enough to make Yohane’s head spin like she were on the world’s fastest tilt-a-whirl.</p><p>Dia’s father leafed through the documents briefly, humming to himself before placing them on the table in the middle of the room with a gravitas that signaled no small amount of finality. If he were pleased, however, he certainly wasn’t showing it.</p><p>“I suppose this would do,” he spoke slowly. The other man raised an eyebrow. “But I would hope for a guarantee that we receive an heir of our own. The Kurosawa family must be protected, and I expect... less from our other daughter.”</p><p><em>Ruby? </em>The way he spoke of his own child so blithely made Yohane’s blood boil, and it was all she could do not to speak up leaving crescent moons of blazing white in the skin of her palms.</p><p>“I’ll provide you your heir,” the groom-to-be replied. “The Kurosawa family name carries as much weight in my heart as does my own.” It was the first time he’d spoken up since they’d entered the dourly-lit parlor, looking less than comfortable perched on a stray chair that was dwarfed by the practical thrones the fathers sat upon. It was pathetic, the way he couldn’t even speak for himself unless he was promising another something.</p><p>Was this Dia’s fate? To be married to a man she’s never met, a man who only wants to be wed by his own father’s approval? Yohane’s stomach churned.</p><p>Dia deserved to be loved and wanted for who she was, not what she could offer. She deserved to be held tenderly, not treated like an object to be negotiated away.</p><p>Dia deserved love, and in that moment Yohane realized something that had been festering deep below the surface of her heart, simmering and bubbling up with every depressive episode and longing glance at the contact she hadn’t tapped on in years.</p><p>She was in love. She had been for years.</p><p>“And what about me?”</p><p>The room came to a necrotic kind of silence, deafening in its eeriness. All eyes turned to Yohane, widened with shock that the bride-to-be would say a word.</p><p>“Let us do the negotiating, dear,” Dia’s father responded softly, almost at a whisper. “I’m trying to make sure that you’re taken care of.”</p><p>Okay, that did it.</p><p>“And how am I supposed to be taken care of if I’m marrying some sycophant who knows jack shit about me?” Yohane pointed a hand squarely at the supposed husband to be, a scowl painted across her face like a stroke of putrid brown obscuring an idyllic painting.</p><p>“Dia-” began Dia’s father sternly, his face looking uncompromising when it had borne a facsimile of paternal comfort only moments before.</p><p>“NO!” Yohane shouted, leaping to her feet. “Stop pretending like you give a shit what she- what I want,” she spat, stumbling over her words long enough to almost let them onto her truth. Images flashed through her mind of Dia kept away from the other kids at festivals, forced to commiserate with her father’s business associates. She saw Dia working herself to exhaustion in the student council room, and Dia always going above and beyond for Aqours. Most of all, she saw the mother who never even raised her, who Yohane had never been able to stand up to.</p><p>For Dia, though, she would stand up to anyone.</p><p>“I do everything for you, and I’m sick of it!” she shouted, words like battery acid spilling out of her painted lips. “For once in my life I’m going to do what’s right for <em>me</em>, and you’re going to have to live with it! I will not marry this man!”</p><p>Before anyone had a chance to say even a word in reply, Yohane rushed to the door and flung it open, slamming it shut behind her. Pure adrenaline designed the path she took straight to the front door, but before she could get there, Ruby stopped her.</p><p>“I- I heard what you said.” The corners of her lips curled higher and higher, until she was beaming brightly. She latched herself onto Yohane, hugging her as tight as she could manage. “I’m so proud of you,” she whispered tenderly. “For finally standing up to them.”</p><p>A tear crested the bottom of Yohane’s eyelid, snaking down her cheek and stealing her foundation along with it.</p><p>“Let’s go get the driver, onee-chan. I’ll calm dad down when he comes out.”</p><p>~=O=~</p><p><em>Come by your place when you’re done,</em> read the text from Yohane’s phone. <em>I’ll be waiting down at the beach.</em></p><p>Yohane directed the family driver there to Numazu, using the meantime as a chance to unwind and process what she’d just done.</p><p>She’d blown up Dia’s life, hadn’t she?</p><p>The thought filled her with no shortage of emotions, but above them all towered pure dread. How could she have done that? She had no right to dictate Dia’s choices any more than her father had, and yet she’d done so anyways.</p><p>The thought hung over her like a raincloud as they pulled up at the beach nearest to the apartment where Yohane had grown up in and still lived, though she’d somehow only managed to visit it a few solitary times before. She thanked the driver and got out, leaving him to pull around the corner for the meantime.</p><p>Lo and behold, there on the beach sat a solitary figure, curled into itself and facing out towards the moonlit bay. Yohane moved closer, taking a moment before she had to deal with the disconcerting, dissociative sight of seeing herself sitting in front of her.</p><p>She had such a sad smile on her face. Of course, it was really Dia’s sadness. Perhaps being free from her own physical form gave Dia the chance to express herself in a way that she’d never been able to in her own skin.</p><p>Dia looked up at Yohane, taking a moment to take in her own bizarre sight. Her smile became a little bit more sincere for a moment, before the corners of her eyes tugged back down.</p><p>“Do you believe in fate, Yohane?”</p><p><em>Yohane</em>. The word made her smile. She hadn’t heard a soul say it in longer than she could remember.</p><p>“Maybe, maybe not. A fallen angel has better things to do than concern herself with the meddling of heaven in the lives of others.” She sat down as she spoke, perched side by side with Dia.</p><p>“I supposed you’d say something to that effect,” Dia replied wryly. Still, the statement carried with it no small amount of warmth. “I can’t say I did, but after today, I’m not so sure.”</p><p>“Dia, about that…”</p><p>Except before Yohane could recount what she’d done, Dia raised a hand that halted her admission in its tracks.</p><p>“No, it’s okay. Don’t tell me yet. Can you lie here with me for a while?”</p><p>Yohane nodded, and without a word Dia lowered herself onto her back. Yohane did the same, and stared up at the night sky. It was largely vacant, save for a few scattered stars that shone brightly enough to break through the haze of light pollution bellowed by the city behind them.</p><p>Brightest of all, Polaris hovered above Tokyo like a beacon, brilliant and gleaming.</p><p>“I used to love stargazing,” Dia spoke quietly. She reached upward, as though attempting to grab the stars and wrestle them into view. The effort didn’t last long before her hand dropped limply to the ground beside her, near Yohane’s. “I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen them.”</p><p>“The heavens aren’t everything,” Yohane replied after a moment. Every word was thought through carefully. “There’s plenty in this mortal realm that delights the senses in much the same way.”</p><p>“Like what?”</p><p>“That’s the beauty of it,” Yohane replied. “You have to find out for yourself. Otherwise you’ll never know what makes you happy.”</p><p>“You know, you’ve always seemed wiser than you let on,” Dia replied in a humored tone. “Why was it that we lost touch?”</p><p>“You have a busy life, and I don’t have much one one at all. It was the perfect storm, I suppose. Always figured I’d be getting in the way if I tried to get in touch, but I wasn’t really keeping up with the others much to begin with.”</p><p>Dia turned to Yohane, brows furled and laced with concern.</p><p>“In no world are you an interference. It’s my fault that I never reached out.”</p><p>“Well, here we are anyways. Maybe it was all that fate you were talking about,” Yohane cracked.</p><p>“You don’t sound convinced.” Dia laughed. “I’m not either, but I don’t know how else to rationalize waking up in your body on the worst day of my life. I spent every day of the last year dreading it, you know. I felt like it was the end of my life.”</p><p>“Is that why you didn’t tell Riko?” Yohane asked.</p><p>“Yeah. I couldn’t bear to break the news to her. And, well… I was ashamed.” The waves lapped in, closer and closer to their feet. High tide was coming in, likely. The water struggled to reach out for the moon, but in turn all it could manage was a few measly feet. Its paramour was too high in the sky, forever apart from it. “I couldn’t bring myself to admit that after everything, I’d given into my parents’ demands.”</p><p>Yohane smiled sadly.</p><p>“I can relate, unfortunately.”</p><p>“Have you thought about getting away?” Dia asked.</p><p>“Yeah, but where would I go? I don’t really know anything else, and even if I did, I wouldn’t have the motivation. I’m stuck.”</p><p>“Maybe the place to start would be getting away for a little while. A week, just to remember what it’s like to be away from her,” Dia replied tepidly as though she were testing the water before she dove in. “Just something to think about.”</p><p>Yohane thought back to the mystery girl Dia wanted to invite for Christmas, and her heart sank.</p><p>“Yeah.”</p><p>They sat in silence, letting the distance crashing of the breakers soothe their wounds. Finally, Dia approached the elephant on the beach.</p><p>“How did it go?”</p><p>“I, uh…” Yohane cringed to herself. “Dia, can I ask you something first?”</p><p>“Of course,” Dia replied.</p><p>“Are you happy doing whatever they say?”</p><p>Silence.</p><p>“No, not at all.”</p><p>Yohane heaved a sigh, wrestled herself up into a sitting position.</p><p>“I couldn’t take it, Dia. They were treating you so horribly. I had to say something, and… and I snapped. I yelled at them and stormed out. I’m so sorry, Dia, I shouldn’t have made that decision-”</p><p>Before she could continue her babbling, however, Yohane found herself pulled into a deep embrace. She tensed for a moment, unsure of how to respond to the physical contact, but after a short while she was able to relax. She melted into Dia’s arms, attempting to ignore the surreality of embracing herself.</p><p>After a few minutes, though, she realized why Dia had pulled her close - she was crying, and she didn’t want Yohane to see. One tear became two, then a deluge as she sobbed into Yohane’s shoulder, letting out a lifetime of fear and suffocation and hopelessness.</p><p>“Thank you, Yohane,” she spoke. “Thank you so much.”</p><p>That was enough for Yohane to let go of her stress and her fear, and she brought a hand to Dia’s head. She stroked her own hair lovingly, letting her nails run through it.</p><p>“I want you to be happy, Dia. You deserve it more than anyone I’ve met.”</p><p>Dia pulled away from the embrace, looking Yohane in the eyes with an unfathomable expression. Tears still stained her cheeks, and suddenly Yohane was reminded of countless nights spent bawling into her pillow, forced to dry her tears in the mirror and make herself presentable before leaving her room.</p><p>And suddenly, without a word, Dia moved forward and pressed her lips against Yohane’s.</p><p>It was weird, tasting herself like this. Her own lips were chapped and mottled with cracks, and much more thin than she’d like. Yet with Dia wearing them? They were perfect.</p><p>Yohane leaned further into the kiss, unsure of why it was happening yet unable to let a dream come true slip away. It lasted for a few seconds that stretched on into a perfect eternity, then melted away at last when Dia pulled back, followed by Yohane until she realized the futility of the endeavor and let Dia go.</p><p>“I’m sorry,” Dia stammered, “I don’t know why I-”</p><p>“It’s okay,” Yohane reassured her. “It’s okay. I… liked that. It was weird, but I liked it,” she added with a small laugh. Dia laughed too, the tension seeming to dissipate.</p><p>“You should probably go,” Dia said. “The last train to Tokyo should be leaving soon. You can go to sleep in my bed, hopefully wake up in yours. I’ll have a lot of fallout to sort through tomorrow.”</p><p>“Yeah, sure,” Yohane replied. She got up, dusted the sand off of Dia’s dress with a few swipes of her palm. “Can we... talk again? Soon?”</p><p>She wasn’t sure what any of this meant, what they were now that they’d felt what it was like to live in one another’s skin. The kiss had been perfect, but nothing stayed perfect with a fallen angel’s luck.</p><p>“Text me tomorrow,” Dia replied. She had a warm smile on her face, brighter than any of the stars shining through the grey of the city night sky. “Now go, get back to my apartment.”</p><p>She gave Yohane a gentle push, but the touch lingered. They looked each other in the eyes for a moment, then two, conveying more than words ever could.</p><p>When Dia said they’d talk tomorrow, she meant it.</p><p>Yohane rushed up to the street, calling Dia’s driver back. They raced to the train station together, just in time for her to buy a ticket and hop onto the train.</p><p>Finally, now, Dia could rest. She watched the last of the Numazu lights flicker and fade over the horizon, leaving her feeling more exhausted than she had in years.</p><p>She slept all the way to her stop.</p><p>~=O=~</p><p>Yohane’s eyes opened at nine the next morning, as sun shone through the shutters on her window and illuminated the room in a soft, yellow glow. She strained to adjust her vision, checking her ceiling once, then twice.</p><p>She was in her room again.</p><p>Yohane heaved a sigh as she wrestled herself upright, checking her body next.</p><p>One arm was hers. So was the other. She had her body back too, it seemed. That, at least, she was some semblance of grateful for. She got up, doing a stretch to relieve the knot in her back, then looked around the room.</p><p>What she saw made her jaw drop - Dia had cleaned and organized it meticulously. Where once had stood an endless pile of dirty plates and discarded costume supplies was now clean carpet, everything sorted into labeled drawers that she’d been given by a distant relative but been too exhausted to fill. Every surface had been dusted, every knick knack given its place on the shelves. The sight filled Yohane with relief like she’d never felt before, but before she could release all the tension of yesterday there was still one thing left to do.</p><p>There was a note on her desk.</p><p>
  <em>Dear Yohane,</em>
</p><p>
  <em>I suspect that whatever happens today, we’ll have quite a lot to talk about if and when we wake up in our own bodies. I have no clue what happened, but I do sense that it was meant to be. I’ve always cared for you, Yohane, more than I let on. Life has kept me away from you and my parents have made me scared to reach out to you, but no matter what I can tell you my truth now without remorse.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>I’ve held romantic feelings for you for a long time now, going back to high school.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>You are welcome to say no, but I hoped that you might be interested in spending Christmas with Riko and I. There is a place for you there if you want it, and there always will be as long as I have a choice in the matter. We have a lot of time to make up for, don’t you think?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Yours, Dia.</em>
</p><p>Inside the envelope was a train ticket with the date stamped out in brick letters - two days from now. The fifteenth. Yohane smiled and held the ticket close, feeling as though she were closer to Dia through it.</p><p>Sure it was two days, but Yohane could manage. They’d lived in one another’s skin and held each other tight, even with years of distance between them. If all that was standing in their way was a few days and a train ticket? Maybe, just maybe, they’d be okay.</p>
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